Stealing Christmas
by mayghaen17
Summary: Someone in Mystic Falls has become the Grinch by stealing Christmas decorations all over town. When Damon catches the culprit red handed, he demands another five minutes to make everything better again.


**a/n: Another holiday exchange fic, this time for 39. Again, this one does not include the sire bond and is slightly canon with the show. It is a one shot :) Enjoy!**

**Stealing Christmas**

Damon had sat at the bar for hours trying to drink away any bit of emotion. He had kept people away from what had always been Ric's seat and tried his best not to think about what day it was. The holidays had never been his favorite time since Katherine had entered his life, but the past two years had given him some hope. He had thought things would be better since he had made friends. For once, he had been looking forward to the holidays where he would get to spend it with people he liked, but then one thing after another had gone wrong. Now, he was sitting in the bar, staring at the spot where the closest thing he had had to a best friend would once sit, wishing that he was there for conversation.

"This seat taken?" a silky voice asked from above his other shoulder.

Damon turned to see a slender red head with vibrant blue eyes waiting for his invitation to sit down. He shook his head. "It is now."

She smiled and sat down. She looked around the room nervously and then gave a short laugh as her eyes landed on Damon once again. "Sorry, I don't normally do this, but you looked so-"

Damon cut her off before she could finish that sentence. He didn't want to hear how lonely he looked from a total stranger and he did not want her pity. He held her gaze with his influence and began to compel her. "We are just going to cut to the chase and admit that we want a dirty hook up. You're going to follow me out back and not say a single thing until I tell you to."

She simply nodded and got to her feet at the same time he did. He extended his hand to her and then led her into the alley behind the building. He had always favored this spot because anyone that would be walking by would have to look down steps and into darkness and unless they were supernatural, no one could see what would transpire. As they stepped outside, Damon cringed at the sight of the holiday lights wrapped around the edge of the roof. Yet another reminder of this Christmas-gone-wrong. He shook his head and whirled around, more than ready to stop thinking altogether. He started by pressing the woman's body up against the wall and pinning it there with his own.

His hand snaked up the column of her neck until it found her fiery hair. He grabbed a fist full of it and tugged down, forcing her to expose her neck to him. His jaw ached at the slight moan that came from her lips. He hesitated for a moment between kissing her lips and going straight for his meal before choosing the later. Once upon a time he would have made it a pleasurable experience, but he was too hungry and tired of fighting his emotions to truly care. He let his canines come out and his eyes take on the sign of bloodlust, but right as his fangs neared her throat, the lights around the building went dead and he caught a flash of movement from the main street.

He stepped back from the red head and sniffed the air. Confusion hit him as he caught the scent of Elena and before he could think about returning to the stranger, he saw Elena running at vampire speed and disappear into the darkness. Damon shook his head and turned back to the girl. "We came out here, I rocked your world, now go home," he demanded and she took off back into the bar.

Slowly, Damon ascended the stairs and looked around the town square for any other sign of Elena. He heard her zip by somewhere close; a sound that was quickly followed by lights being taken down from another building. He began walking towards the building, but paused when he heard a yelp followed by a string of curses. He smiled to himself and continued on in that direction.

As he rounded the corner behind a little boutique, he was surprised and confused by what he saw. There, dangling a few inches from the ground was Elena completely wrapped up in a strand of lights that she had attempted to pull from the building seconds before.

"So you're the one that has been stealing Christmas decorations from around town these past few days," he said, grinning smugly as he watched her struggle to get free.

"Go away, Damon."

He leaned against the building shrugged. "If I leave, who is going to help you?"

"I don't need any help."

"Clearly," he replied and rolled his eyes.

She growled, her eyes flashing red for a moment. She hated that he had caught her doing this and was even more embarrassed that she was still stuck. She stopped moving for a moment and sucked in a deep breath. "Damon."

"Yes, Elena?"

"Would you _please _help me down?"

"Only if you promise to stop whatever it was that you were doing and tell me what the hell is going on with you."

Elena took another deep breath and nodded once. "Fine. Just get me down from here."

Damon nodded and stepped forward to untangle his damsel in distress. "You know you're a vampire, right?" he asked as he freed her. "You could have just gotten free on your own."

She stared at him in a way that made him glad that looks couldn't kill. "I was completely unaware of that fact. It was all a set up so that you could save me," she said sarcastically, shaking herself off.

Damon smirked, but didn't comment. Instead, he gestured for them to move away from the alley they were in. "We should go back to the boarding house so that we can have that chat you promised me."

Elena sighed, but didn't challenge him. Instead, she nodded and took off in that direction with him close behind her. They got there in only a few minutes time and Elena went straight for the booze on the cart. "Where do I even start?" she asked aloud as she poured two glasses worth of his favorite bourbon.

"From the beginning would be nice," he said as he took the glass she offered. "For instance, what made you steal Christmas decorations?"

She shrugged and went to stand in front of the fireplace. Damon took that as a cue and grabbed the matches from the mantle. Elena's gaze remained focused on the fresh flames as she answered his initial question. "It hit me a week ago that it was almost Christmas and for the first time I felt nothing. I mean, what's to celebrate? My parents are dead, biological and adopted, Jenna's dead, Alaric's dead, my friends are either witches, werewolves, or vampires; sometimes a combination, and _I'm_ dead."

"Jeremy's not any of those," Damon supplied, watching her face as she recounted all of those that she had lost; that _they _had lost. He finished his glass at the memory of Ric and went to get the bottle.

She snorted and took the bottle from his hands to take a long drink after setting her empty glass on the mantle. "No, he's just hell bent on killing me. Which is exactly why he and Bonnie will be spending the holiday at the cabin. Tyler and Caroline are dealing with their own issues. All of that just built up and when I saw how festive others were being, I felt jealousy and the next thing I knew, I was stealing Christmas from everyone else."

Damon let silence fall between them before he asked, "And Stefan...?"

"Stefan left."

Damon stared at her for a second and then nodded. "Yes, of course he left. He went with Klaus to find the cure. For you."

She shook her head and turned to look at him. "No, Stefan left me; I left Stefan," she said and then took a deep drink. "We left each other."

"I'm sorry, what?"

"This morning, he came over to talk about the cure and the more he mentioned the life we could have after I was free, the more I realized that it was wrong. Then it hit me. I may not like being a vampire; more precisely that I didn't get to chose this life, but if I hadn't had any blood in my system I would be completely dead. Then that got me thinking about the life I would have had had none of this every happened and suddenly the dream of having a husband and kids while living in the suburbs disappeared. As long as I was the doppelganger, knowing what I know, I would never willing have kids because some day, a little girl is going to be a doppelganger and Klaus is going to go after her. I can't, in good conscience, do that to someone I'm related to." She raised the bottle to her lips again and shrugged. "One way or another, I would have realized this and I would have chosen to turn just like Katherine did."

Damon took the bottle to drink some of it before she finished it off. He was trying to wrap her head around her words, but it was too surreal for the moment. "You told Stefan this?"

She nodded. "Yes. I told him that I didn't want to lose myself and that being a vampire wasn't ideal, but I wanted to embrace it. I'm going to live forever, I might as well stop crying over it." She closed her eyes and crossed her arms over her chest. "Somehow that led to him telling me that he couldn't love me if I stayed a vampire."

"He said that?" Damon asked, nearly choking on the liquor. A few days before Stefan had said something like that to Damon about Elena, but he hadn't given it much thought.

She laughed lightly and shook her head. "Which I found hilarious considering the fact that I was able to love him as a vampire. Sure, I had my freak out in the beginning because it was all so new, but I got over it and I never stopped loving him. But now that I'm a vampire and we can be together forever, he doesn't want me."

"Hypocrite," he said and smiled back at her as she smirked at him. "But he went with Klaus for the cure still?"

She nodded. "He's either going to take it himself or destroy it."

"And then be killed by Klaus. Perfect," he said sarcastically.

Elena shrugged. "It's safe to say that it's over between us."

"I'm sorry," Damon said, laying a hand on her shoulder.

"Thanks, but it was overdue. Let's face it, he and I had been over for awhile."

"You choosing him said otherwise," Damon retorted before he could stop himself.

Elena sighed and turned so that she was facing him. "I can't say how truly sorry I am for that because I regret it. I didn't know that we had met first because you made me forget. I thought I was losing you both and I only had a split second to choose. You were new and exciting and Stefan was safe and familiar." She stopped when she felt a tear hit her cheek.

Damon reached up and wiped it away from her with the pad of his thumb. Instead of removing his hand right away, he left it there to caress her face. When the moment had passed, he let his hand drop to his side.

"It didn't change the fact that I had feelings for you, Damon. And turning into a vampire only magnified that," she added with a quiet voice. More tears gathered in her eyes no matter how hard she tried to stop herself from crying, she couldn't.

Damon pulled her to him and stood there silently as she cried on his chest. He knew he wasn't the reason she was crying, it was all the sadness that had been piling up on her the last few days. Right now, it was full blown vampire depression. Instead of continuing the topic she had left on, he wanted to make her feel better. When her sobs slowed down, he pulled away enough to look at her. As he dried her tears, he asked, "Where did you put the decorations you took?"

"In one of the spare rooms," she replied, her voice a little hoarse. "Why?"

"You need some cheering up and so do I. I think we could both use some holiday spirit. Yes, this year has had more downs than ups, but that doesn't mean we should let the holiday go to waste." He paused to look at the clock and saw that it was no longer Christmas Eve. "The faster we decorate, the longer we can enjoy it."

Elena stepped back and smiled back at him. "Thank you."

He nodded. "Last one to finish has to do as the other says," he stated and took off to find the decorations.

"You're on," she replied and chased after him.

In a matter of minutes, the living room of the boarding house looked as though someone had spent hours putting up lights and making it look picture perfect. They both met back at the fireplace at exactly the same time. "Hmmm, I guess that makes it a tie."

"Not quite," Elena replied and held a piece of mistletoe above their heads. Before he could react, she leaned in and gave him a lingering peck on the lips. "Thank you for this," she breathed as she pulled back. "I know it doesn't change anything, but it's a good start."

Damon gestured to the mistletoe still in her hands. "I guess that means I win."

She looked down and then grinned back up at him. "I guess it does," she said. "Your wish is my command."

The moment she uttered the words, they felt the change in the atmosphere and Damon didn't hesitate to lean in for a kiss of his own. The mistletoe slipped from Elena's grasp so that she could wrap her arms around his neck to pull him closer, her fingers diving into the depths of his hair. Damon's hands fell to her hips, his nails digging in to keep her there. Elena's lips parted in order to deepen the kiss. In one instant, everything changed. She wasn't with Stefan anymore and being with Damon didn't feel wrong. For once, her feelings weren't something to be ashamed of or something that she had to keep to herself. That revelation fueled her passion and she could tell that Damon was more than okay with it.

Damon's hands roamed down her rear until he was able to get a good grip and lift her up. She wrapped her legs around his waist and gasped as he zipped over the to the couch. He sat in the middle so that her body could straddle his. Elena let her hands wander over the rest of his body as his hands did the same to her. Within no time they were removing each other's clothes and sampling every bit of exposed skin that they could. Elena's head fell back as his lips found her breasts after removing her bra. A hiss escaped her lips as his blunt teeth nipped at her hardened nipples. Her hips rotated on top of his arousal, teasing him as he teased her. Giving in to her demands, Damon pushed his hips forward to show her just how ready for her that he was.

Elena grabbed the material of his shirt and she tugged until she was lying with her back on the couch and Damon over top of her. He kissed her roughly as she removed his shirt as fast as she could without destroying it. Not wanting to waste any more time, Damon pulled himself away from Elena so that he could remove the rest of their clothes with his vampire speed. When their bodies were completely bare, Damon returned to Elena where she cradled his body with hers. Her fingers plunged into his hair as he reclaimed her lips. Elena moaned into the kiss as she felt his erection pressing against her naked core. She raised her hips to let him know that she was ready and he didn't hesitate to show that he had received the message loud and clear.

As he slid inside of her wet heat, they both gasped into the kiss. The shock of finally being together in the most intimate of ways made the moment even more surreal to both of them. Before they knew it, they were settled into a rhythm that would soon send them over the edge. Their kisses became wild with need and want and Elena let her hands roam Damon's back, her nails leaving marks in their wake. As their orgasms neared, Damon trailed his lips to Elena's neck, his teeth scraping at her skin.

Elena remembered how sampling Damon's blood had made her feel and wondered how it would feel now. As she neared the edge even more, Elena angled herself in a way that allowed Damon to have more access to her throat and so that her mouth was in biting range of his shoulder. As if they were in sync with each other's minds, they both sunk their fangs into one another at the same time. Both moaned with intense pleasure, setting off their climaxes.

Damon had shared blood with other vampires before, but nothing had ever been divine as it was at that moment. He felt connected to Elena on every level. He could feel her passion and arousal and even the love that she had for him. Elena's body shook intensely as she reveled in the connection she felt with Damon as they played hunter and prey at the same time. Her head nearly exploded from the pleasure and it took more than a few minutes for them to both come down from their highs.

When Elena could begin to focus again, she felt Damon's lips against her throat, suckling her skin gently. "You know, as much as I want to just do that over and over again, I think there's something we should do first," she said.

Damon lifted his head to look at her. "Such as?"

She looked at the decorations around the living room. "We should return everything."

"Do you remember where it came from?"

She nodded. "It's a small town. Most of the families don't change their decorations until something breaks. Most of this stuff I've seen every year for as long as I can remember."

Damon sighed and pushed himself up to his feet, taking his time to take in the sight of Elena's naked body. He grinned shamelessly and watched as she checked him out in turn. When their eyes met, something clicked between them and Elena got to her feet. She wrapped her arms around his neck and brought his lips to hers for a kiss. When she pulled away, she held his cheeks in her hands so that she could look him in the eye. "We're going to put this stuff back and then continue what we were doing until we can't do it anymore."

"I like the sound of that," he replied, stroking her back mindlessly.

"And then in the morning we'll have a serious talk. For now, I just want you to know that this isn't a one time, rebound thing, Damon. This is the start of something."

Instead of replying, he leaned in and kissed her soundly. "Sounds good to me."

"Thank you."

"You already thanked me."

She shook her head. "Not for that. I mean thanks for everything. It always seems that no matter how shitty things get, you're always there to remind me that they can get better." She kissed his cheek and then pulled out of his arms.

He pulled her back for another scorching kiss and pressed his forehead against hers after he was done. "You're welcome. Merry Christmas, Elena."

"Merry Christmas, Damon," she returned before pulling away to redress. With that, they set out to return the decorations to continue celebrating their newfound holiday spirit.


End file.
